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Category: ToddlerFun

So I bought blackboard paint and painted a big piece of one of the walls in our living room with it. When it was all dried and finished I explained to the boys that they could now write on this wall with their chalk. They were very happy with my surprise.
‘Wow,’ said the first. And he started scribbling on the wall.
‘Wow,’ said the second. And he walked to another wall and before I realised what happened he had scribbled some huge scratches on our normal walls.
Aaargh!

‘Mommy, we want to play with our new clay!’
This translates as: Mommy build us clay animals.
No idea if anyone ever manages to make the clay look as great as in the picture.
Luckily the boys think what I build is very lifelike. Silly them.

These days I often walk with the boys. I am teaching them about traffic, traffic lights, trams and other important rules. The boys however are more interested in their surroundings. If they see something of interest on the ground (usually garbage) they want to grab it. So teaching them about trash is one of those other important rules.

Their favourite things to find are sticks though. We can’t walk past a tree or bush without them diving in the soil to get a half rotten, dirty, wet stick. This stick is the most precious thing they have ever seen and it has to come home with us. If it’s not so big it has to be put in my handbag (yuk). If it is big, it will be in their hands until they find a better one. Or until it breaks and they cry till I have fixed it (em, yes, till I have found the perfect replacement that is). Or till we get home and they leave it in our hallway for later. (And when they are in bed I throw them in the garden, the sticks are piling up like crazy.)

There is something that tops the stick though: stones. The best thing that can happen is finding nice pebbles (or horribly dirty ones, sometimes they get confused with hardened dog poo). When we come across a yard that has stones instead of grass they jump for joy and dive in. What usually happens then is that they fight about the same stone, even though there are hundreds of similar stones. All the while I am waiting/ freezing in the cold/ getting wet in the rain / burning in the sun. A 10 minute walk usually takes about 35 minutes with these two. But hey, soon we’ll have enough stones to build my own pebble garden.

A few days ago I painted some woodwork in our living room. I did this while the boys were in school and when I was done I cleaned up and opened the windows to get the smell out. By the time the boys were home, there was hardly any scent left. The paint was still drying so I told them to stay away from the wood, which they did (or so I thought).

The next morning I woke up the boys in their bedroom and I smelled paint thinner. How strange I thought, as I had not painted there. But as we are living in an old house I thought ‘maybe all the smells went up through the ceiling?’. So I opened up the windows to make sure it would evaporate quickly.

But as soon as the boys were home from school, I could smell that nauseating smell again. And I had not even been painting. I sniffed everywhere to make sure I had not left anything with paint on it. I threw out the rags and the newspapers that I had used, even though they were not so smelly. And still I could smell paint thinner when I was around the boys. I sniffed and sniffed. Maybe I was going crazy? Was I smelling things that were not there?!
Right. I admit it looked a little crazy, me going sniffing through the whole house…. but the next morning I finally found the source of the smell. My son’s favourite stuffed animals had a slightly black ear. He hardly lets go of that animal so when I got it from his grip, I nearly fainted. YAIKS, that thing stank!
I have absolutely no idea how he managed to get his animal anywhere near my paint stuf, my guess is he probably threw it against my painted wood. Anyway, the mystery has finally been solved and is in the washing machine right now. Toddlers: never a dull moment.

Due to works outside in the street there is no water in the house. Of course this is the day one of them decides to eat cake without his hands. They are twins, which means the other first laughs really hard and then follows the example.

But now it’s my time to laugh. Sorry boys, shower time will have to wait till tonight.

The last month was hard. The boys did not react well to all the changes. We had taken all possible precautions to make the move a smooth transition.
– The boys helped with packing (and loved it.)
– We explained what was going to happen many times (and they understood and were excited.)
– We took them to the new house several times before we moved. (they were really looking forward to it.)
– We let them help with little things in the new house (tearing of wallpaper is their favourite.)
– We moved some toys already to show them how moving worked (mom, can we keep this?)
– We read stories about moving (which they loved.)
– We showed them the empty old house after moving (and had them run around to their delight.)
– We explored the new neighbourhood together (they love all the new shops.)

And those things all worked: they absolutely love the new house. They could not be happier that we have stairs now and they love their new big bedroom, the garden and their play area.
BUT… their behaviour was horrible most of the time. They got upset about everything, said no to anything you would suggest, started throwing their toys around a lot, screamed so much I feel I got deaf, not even to mention the spitting and crying uncontrollably when we said NO to them. It was a nightmare, we did not recognise our boys anymore.

Sadly there was no solution, all the above mentioned things did not work against the endless tantrums they threw. Even the always working solution of taking them apart and giving them love, hugs and special attention would not stop these moods.

And being twins, the tantrum of one caused the other one to get upset too, even if he was playing nicely before.So it really never ended.
The only solution was time. We suffered for weeks and weeks. Now it finally seems to get better. We are still not there but at least there are some hours in the day they are tantrum-free. Let’s hope this phase is over soon. Mommy and Daddy feel like they aged forty years in four weeks.

As we are in the process of moving house within Brussels, I have been (and still am) a little too busy (and tired) to sit behind the computer to share our twin stories.

The boys are trying very hard to help with everything and are really excited. They thoroughly enjoyed pulling wallpaper of in the new house for instance and they seem very keen to help out painting walls…

Packing up our old belongings is proving to be a bit of a challenge. I am trying to explain to the boys that we are bringing everything. Still that does not reassure them. They insist on grabbing each toy and book in their bedroom and ask me: ‘Is this coming to the new house?’
And when I pack a box they often take things out again because even though they did not look at the item in weeks, now they really need to play with it.
So sorry for my absence here, and don’t worry, I am sure there will be plenty to share once we are a bit settled.

The following games are apparently the latest thing in toddler-world. Not sure I understand but I guess you have to be a toddler to enjoy these games.

Throwing coasters and cards between the sofa and the wall. Then move the sofa and sweep them up. Climb on sofa and do it again as often as needed. When finished leave all coasters and cards behind the sofa or on the floor.

Quickly make a drawing and cut it up immediately after it’s done. Then throw all the little pieces of paper on the floor (toddler 1). Or (toddler 2) wrap the pieces up really small, paper in paper in paper, and give it to mommy and yell: ‘present for you!’

Throw all stuffed animals in bed. Climb in bed, throw all the animals on the floor. Repeat often until it’s time to throw the sheets and duvet out too. Then leave the bedroom as messy as possible.

When you walk the streets as a twin parent you get quite a bit of attention, especially when they are still in a pram. People often stop to look or chat to you. But quite often you may receive a remark that is funny, weird Read More ...

Toys can be rather expensive and sometimes kids don’t even like them that much. I have found over the last years that sometimes toys don’t have to cost anything. And often those free toys are the ones they enjoy the most. Here is a list Read More ...